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Tips for submitting to lit mags

For those of you who don’t know, I’m the founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Rampallian literary magazine. As EIC, I go through a ton of submissions and I see a lot of people who, quite frankly, are submitting their work the wrong way.

Here are my tips on how to submit to literary magazines without pissing off the editors:

Read the submission guidelines… twice. This is the biggest problem I see when going through submission emails–people don’t read the guidelines. If a publication states “No simultaneous submissions,” don’t send them a simultaneous submission. They won’t look at it. If they tell you to send work via an attachment in .doc or .docx form, don’t send your work in the body of the email without an attachment. If they ask for a bio, send them one. Read the guidelines. Read them carefully.

Proofread your submission email. You’re trying to sell publications your writing, correct? Then don’t send them a submission riddled with typos and errors. Read it over before you hit send.

Get the editor’s name right. This one goes along with number 2. If you’re addressing the submission email to one of the editors, spell their name correctly. Copy and paste it from the site if that will make things easier, but do not spell their name wrong. Just don’t.

Don’t be cheeky. You might think addressing the editor in a cutesy, quirky way will make you seem cool and interesting. It won’t. It will only annoy the editor. Keep your cover letter or email straight to the point.

Don’t constantly check up on your submission. Not all lit mags send out an automated response when they receive your submission. If you don’t hear from them within a couple days, do not email them asking if they got your submission. Most publications list an average response time on their website. If that time frame has passed and you haven’t heard from them, email them about your submission’s status. Otherwise, hang tight. Editors are busy people and most of them have jobs outside of their lit mag duties. Be patient.